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I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2004. I have always been overweight, but with steroid treatment of my colitis and weight gain after pregnancy, I have ballooned to 320 pounds. I am looking into gastric bypass, but I am wondering how gastric bypass would affect my colitis? Would it make my symptoms worse? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Ulcerative colitis affects only the colon, while gastric bypass involves the stomach and small bowel. A typical gastric bypass involves closing off the top part of your stomach to create a small pouch, and then diverting the upper portion of the small intestine to connect to the pouch. This dramatically reduces the amount of food your stomach can hold (to about an ounce). So theoretically, patients with ulcerative colitis can have bariatric surgery.

However, it would be reasonable for you to consider alternative forms of weight loss, like diet and exercise, since some patients with ulcerative colitis will need surgery for their disease and having a previous major surgery will make the ulcerative colitis surgery more difficult and complicated.

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